Denise Lopez

Denise Lopez is currently the Director of Operations for the Health Observatory at ASU. She oversees daily operations and supports ongoing strategic planning efforts.
The Health Observatory at ASU is a critical component of the ASU Health learning
ecosystem that is designed to collect, analyze and visualize a diverse array of
information about the health of populations to inform decision makers, advance new
health discoveries, and produce data of social and economic value.

Denise was previously the Senior Program Manager, Community Engagement, at the Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Center (SIRC) in the School of Social Work. She worked closely and collaboratively with community stakeholders, community agencies, and other partners to leverage diversity in knowledge and expertise needed to generate solutions for the complex health-related challenges our communities face.

Prior to joining Arizona State University, she held various roles at Maricopa County Department of Public, spanning the areas of Public Health Policy, Maternal and Child Health, and Community Needs Assessment and Implementation planning. Denise has held many leadership positions in government, nonprofit, and for profit organizations for over 25 years. Denise has experience leading work teams, community partners, and stakeholders in local and statewide initiatives. She has extensive experience utilizing needs assessment findings to develop initiatives that meet the needs of communities while driving outcomes and reducing costs. 

She was recognized by Univision and Valle del Sol in 2013 as one of Arizona's 40 Hispanic Leaders Under 40 and by the de Beaumont Foundation in 2021 as a 40 Under 40 in Public Health recipient.